The St. Louis Cardinals could sure use a pitcher like Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen in their rotation. St. Louis instead chose to trade Zac Gallen to the Miami Marlins in 2017 in a deal that the Cardinals almost certainly regret to this day. It's a trade that worked out to the Diamondbacks' benefit and one that Gallen uses as motivation.

The Cardinals traded Gallen, Sandy Alcantara, Magneuris Sierra, and Daniel Castano to the Marlins for Marcell Ozuna. Less than two years later, the Diamondbacks swapped Jazz Chisholm for Gallen. After growing up rooting for the Cardinals and being drafted by St. Louis, the pitcher doesn't exactly have warm feelings toward the organization.

“As much as I grew up a Cardinals fan, as much as I was their draft pick, they needed to fill a need with another type of player, and they needed to move me,” Gallen said, via The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “That’s the weird thing about being traded, you get this feeling — as much as it’s true or untrue — that you feel wanted by another team and unwanted by another team. I will find a slight in anything. So, yeah, I used it. I used it as motivation. Another thing I put on the bulletin board.”

Gallen has previously indicated that he thinks the Cardinals might've traded him because he missed a few offseason workouts as a minor-league player. The Diamondbacks' ace has turned into one of MLB's best pitchers. The NL starting pitcher in the 2023 All-Star, Gallen is on his way to a third top-10 NL Cy Young finish in four seasons.

Gallen leads the NL with 11 wins, 19 starts, a 2.77 FIP and a 1.05 WHIP at the All-Star break. The Cardinals are in last place, largely because of poor pitching.